Tag: stem cell

A donor has been selected

We got a call today from the Transplant Coordinator, telling us that the donor has been selected. They actually select the third of the three donors we had been undergoing testing — the last one to come in. This is good news — when we saw Dr. Rossetti, he had liked that second one a lot. And he likes this one better.  This first choice is a young female, not from the U.S., same blood type as Bethany. She will be contacted with the news, and if she agrees to do it, she will be scheduled for a complete physical exam. She will also be given a list of tentative dates for the procedure; the earliest of these will be about three weeks after the physical exam.

The donor goes through a five-day regimen of injections to (a) increase her production of stem cells and (b) force the stem cells out of the marrow and into the bloodstream. On the day of the transplant, the donor will be hooked up to a machine like a dialysis machine: blood will flow out of one arm, through the machine, which will “harvest” the stem cells, and the remaining blood will be put back into the other arm. This is about a 6-8 hour process for the donor. The stem cells will be stored in a bag very much like a regular unit of blood. Since the donor is outside of the US, they will be put on an international flight to Pittsburgh, and transported to the hospital.

By that time, Beth, also, will have undergone an 8-day regimen of intensive chemotherapy and full body radiation. The intention, again, is to destroy all of her damaged bone marrow. The hope is that the new stem cells will “engraft”, or set up shop, within 30 days, and begin to form new bone marrow within Beth’s bones. About that point, Beth will begin to face “rejection” issues — “graft vs host”. Some of this effect is good — the immunity effect of the new “graft” will, it is hoped, destroy any remaining damaged bone marrow and leukemia cells. This is vital, in fact, in preventing relapse. The unfortunate side is that the “graft vs host” also can have side effects that can be very serious, and can even lead to death (i.e., pneumonia and other infections become a very real danger.). And this danger lasts about a year.

Needless to say, Beth is very apprehensive about this. But at least we are moving forward now.

Our second potential donor is approved

Yesterday I learned that we have confirmed a second 10/10 donor, and we may learn of testing results from a third. That would mean we will be able to select from among three potential qualified donors. Given that there are 10 million people in the US database, and seven million people in the international database, to come down to only three potential matches … that’s just an amazing number to me.

One of these individuals is from the United States, by the way; the other two are from the International list. So in that case, we may have to wait for an international flight to bring in the stem cells on “transplant” day.

In agreeing to submit to all of the additional testing we’re asking them to do, all three of these folks are tacitly consenting to be donors, but once the doctors select the best donor, then that person will need to be recruited — that is, I guess there is all kinds of paperwork and legal stuff to be filled out. I don’t know much at all about that process, but there is some further work to be done.

We’ve been under the impression that it will take about six weeks from the time a donor is selected until “transplant”. So if the donor is selected next week, that would put “transplant” for us right in the middle of December. And that, in turn, would mean a week or more in the hospital, followed by 30 solid days’ worth of running to the “medical short stay unit” at West Penn, where Beth would have daily blood tests and would then receive transfusions of whatever might be needed on that particular day, whether that be additional hemoglobin, or platelets, or intravenous antibiotics, or whatever.

I say “30 solid days’ worth of running”, but that’s only if she’s healthy. There is a 75% chance during this time that she will need to be admitted because of some kind of infection. In fact, the whole first 100 days, Beth will be in an extremely vulnerable condition – not having an immune system of her own, but dependent upon the immunities of the new stem cells that are implanted into her.

It’s a long and convoluted process, and given that this is the only cure for the leukemia that Beth has, as bad as it gets, the cure is not worse than the disease. Although, we are told, it may seem that way at times.

The good news is that God Rules. That is the one constant in the world that we can truly count on.